Google Adwords Being Upgraded to Include Mobile Ads

Google has recently announced plans to upgrade Adwords "by rolling out enhanced campaigns." Under this new system, the enhanced ad campaigns will run on both desktops and mobile. Advertisers will not be able to run campaigns targeted at specific devices, although they will be able to specify emphasis on mobile or desktop. When the new system rolls out, ongoing mobile or desktop only campaigns will be upgraded to encompass all devices.

According to Google, the reason for this upgrade is that consumers now have more than one device, and that 90% of them "move sequentially between several screens to accomplish a task." Business Insider believes that this move towards cross-platform ad campaigns, is an attempt to "simplify Google's ad system," which could potentially lead to improvements towards mobile cost-per-click numbers.

Google attempted to explain the benefits of the new Adwords system by using a pizza restaurant as an example.

This creates great opportunities for businesses, but can also make marketing more complex and time-consuming. For example, a pizza restaurant probably wants to show one ad to someone searching for “pizza” at 1pm on their PC at work (perhaps a link to an online order form or menu), and a different ad to someone searching for “pizza” at 8pm on a smartphone a half-mile from the restaurant (perhaps a click-to-call phone number and restaurant locator).

Signals like location, time of day, and the capabilities of the device people are using have become increasingly important in showing them the right ad. With enhanced campaigns, instead of having to cobble together and compare several separate campaigns, reports and ad extensions to do this, the pizza restaurant can easily manage all of this in one single place. Enhanced campaigns help you reach people with the right ads, based on their context like location, time of day and device type, across all devices without having to set up and manage several separate campaigns.